Wanderings around Socal

Well, I finally entered the late 20th century and got a digital camera, so I figured I'd start documenting some of my travels around Southern California. The big trip got cancelled due to a 6600 dollar dental bill, but hey, small rides are just as fun (I keep telling myself ) and I've seen some good day ride reports, so here goes.

First ride to document I took yesterday. I own a klr and a Kymco People 150 scooter, and took the scooter yesterday. Anyone who hasn't ridden a scooter doesn't know what they are missing. The things are just plain fun even for a 50 year old guy who's ridden biger bikes all his life. So, forget the old joke (you don't want to let your friends see you riding it...you know what I'm talking about) and jump on one.

Got up early in the a.m. and saw the dog in his favorite position:

This morning he had his head all the way under the scooter...and people say there are smart dogs!
Well, had to get gas and saw this:

Sorry it's rotated, but you get the idea. Thank god filling up meant .9 gallons! I fricken' love that scooter!

Made another little stop in San Pedro for a little walk to the beach. Some interesting grafiti on the way down:

For those who think the Southern California coast is just nice white sand...

Sorry...if you turn your head just right.....it's a nice shot, huh!

A nice sign on the way to Hermosa Beach along Palos Verdes. There are a lot of whoops, most are hard to see, making this stretch a lot of fun! I think this 240 lb. man on his 200 lb. scooter caught air! I'd be proud if it was on purpose...

Got to Hermosa Beach, and discovered they have free motorcycle parking! All the spots except for the motorcycle spots have meters to feed. They just earned more of my local tourist dollars for sure!

On the ride home down Palos Verdes, I saw this van. This guy, evidently, REALLY loves Jesus!

A little stop on Palos Verdes:

One of the weirdest warning signs I've ever seen:

I got home in time to make a cookout at a buddy's house (shrimp and brats, woohoo!) and to watch the urban sunset while sipping coffee at my favorite coffee house:

Well, hope you liked the little mini-adventure. Seeing as how I bought my first digital camera 3 days ago and just today downloaded photos and opened a photobucket account for the first time, I'm patting myself on the back just a little. Any suggestions just fire away!

Hopefully I'll be riding to Palomar tomorrow, and I should have time to write everything up on Friday...

MMMMM, lobster! I'll be there maybe Saturday. Glad you liked the little report, they'll get better as I do!

To anyone in socal who may be reading this, if you go up the South Grade Road up Palomar mt. any time soon, be careful. Was up there yesterday and there's some loose gravel on some of the curves. Sucked up the seat on the first one I ran into and slowed down a bit. Still a great ride (got some more pictures, I'll post them on Friday or Saturday here), just leave a bit of wiggle room. Don't plan on erasing any chicken strips up there any time soon. I'll post this in regionals, also.

Hey great report and nice pics. Just goes to show that you can have an adventure anywhere, its more a state of mind than a location. You don't have to travel hundreds of miles from home to go adventuring. A perfect trip: beach, babes and brats! I love California so keep the pics a coming (especially the beach hotties ).

Now that you've got a nice digital camera, consider paying for a smugmug.com account to show off those great photos. Smugmug owner is the creator of this very forum and I'm not sure how many people are aware of that.

I was originally going to use smugbug, but realized that the server at work will not allow access. Don't know why. Because of that, I just went with photobucket which, again for reasons unknown, is accessable at work.

I took the ride to Palomar on Tuesday, A little background on the klr. I bought it new inn '09 after taking a ride on my buddy's 92. Love this bike! Well soon after, I had some medical issues and one of the meds the doc put me on made me so spacy I was afraid to ride. I sold my V-strom 1000 to that same buddy (also my roommate) but couldn't part with the KLR. It sat unused for a couple years outdoors (call me stupid, I'll agree). Earlier this year the doc took me off that med, so I bought the Kymco to see if I still had my "bike legs". I also am a fan of scooters after owning a Bajaj Chetak for a while, so this didn't hurt the decision. I knew I had the "legs" still before I even got the scooter home, so started in on getting the KLR together. Some carb cleaning, an oil change, a new Sargent seat. crash bars from Happy Trails and a new shock were on it by July and I was off. This is why I have an '09 KLR with only 4300 or so miles on it that looks like it's been rode hard the whole time. But what the hell, it's a KLR, it ain't supposed to look pretty!

Anyhow, I got up in the morning and headed outside, where my bike was looking at me saying "Come on, dude. I have a freshly lubed chain, my tires are checked and I wanna ride!"

You'll notice the FMF pipe sticker and in later photos that I don't actually have one. My buddy put on a pipe and they sent him a butte load of stickers, I just grabbed one and put it on to confuse and because everyone needs a bike that's a general sticker magnet, lol.

So I hit the slab (the 405 to the 5, same old slab) and when I got to San Juan Capistrano, I hit rain. Yes, unlike the old song says, it DOES rain in Southern Californis. I decided to pull into the rest area at Camp Pendleton to consider whether I wanted to risk wet roads on the mountain or keep going and just fart around in San Diego. The mountain won out after a little wandering around the rest area:

Just a little wet now, asthe rain slowed:

Nice looking place to get a drink of h2o:

Not getting off the sidewalk here!

Just to show how gray it was (and why the pictures are going to suck in the bad light)

So, I started up the mountain after battling the casino traffic on the '76. While I wholeheartedly support the tribes' right to casinos, they shouldn't be allowed more than 500 feet off the interstate! They are killing what were good roads in the 80's. Here's pretty much what the scenery was all the way up:

I stopped for gas, coffee and a gut bomb at the gas station by the Pala Casino and saw some nice rock work on the side of the parking structure:

As you can probably tell by now, I really dig small details photos.

Got to the top after taking the South Grade Road. There was a lot of dirt washed across the roads, and I sucked up the seat on the first blind curve I ran into it on. I slowed down a bit for some wiggle room, and the rest or the ride was fun! Too gray out for good pictures (but I was having too much fun to stop for them anyways ).

How many of you who ride Palomar on the weekends have ever seen this in the Palomar parking lot?

I love good roads on the weekdays! Palomar is also home to my absolute favorite post office:

Just a little (bad) picture to show that yes, there are pine trees in Southern Cal., you just have to look for them:

The front ends of two harley's that showed up. Sorry, didn't get a shot of them. Not into them, and I forget some people here appreciate them. I'll try and get pictures next time I come across them. Nice dudes though. We shot the, umm, I mean chatted for a few.

I decided to go down the West Grade Road, and it was nice, as there wasn't much dirt across the road at all.

Pulled over to look at a memorial to a Native American who died fighting the La Jolla fire:

I decided at the bottom to continue east on the 76. Straaighter and more boring than I remembered. I kept sing the Beatles to myself with altered lyrics. "The Long and Boring Road...". Wound up in Warner Springs, where I decided to make a uey at the glider field:

It was 2:00, and I knew if I headed back then, I just might miss rush hour on the 405. Stopped again for gas, coffee and a smoke. It's safe to smoke here, right?

Saw a dude on a duc getting gas. He had a testile one piece suit that not only matched his bike, but had knee pucks. I didn't even know you could get knee pucks on textile. :

Made it home at 4:00, missing traffic entirely! Stopped to eat and shared a space with one of the new Honda cb250's. Very cool little bikes:

Did 276 miles. Not bad seeing I left at 9:30.

Ended the day with a barbeque mix plate from L&L Hawaiian Barbeque. Yummy! Warning, vegans should not look at this picture:

It was a fun day despite the gray skies which made picture taking bad (but was great weather for riding!) . Tomorrow I have a couple rides planned and which one I take will depend on the weather. Hopefully, no matter where I go, I'll have time to post everything on Sunday. Thanks again for looking everyone!

I had 2 options yesterday. I was either going to take the KLR to Big Bear or take the scooter on a ride south on PCH. The thermometer was at 91 degrees at 8:00 in the a.m., so the coast won out big time! Be aware, there are a lot of pictures for this trip, so I hope you don't get bored!

Started down PCH and stopped at Sunset Beach to snap some pictures of my favorite house:

The dude who built it out of an old water tower lived there for years, but now it's a vacation rental. Hate to see how much it would cost to rent! Here's the address for those rich enough to be interested:

Sorry to have cut off the top of this next one. Wondering, though, how quick could I split after an earthquake?

In case you hadn't noticed, I figured out how to rotate my pictures and they were automatically fixed for the rest of the thread! Little things make me happy.

Saw some surfers, but the waves weren't overly impressive:

The view from the beach:

You'll notice I had to park a bit, well, creatively:

Right at the end of the crosswalk. A cop went by and didn't say a thing...

I was going to stop in Huntington Beach, but every parking spot has a meter! There is no where to park in H.B. by the beach without paying either in a paid lot or by feeding the meter!

Well, H.B., for not allowing people who are visiting the beach that belongs to them and spending their hard earned cash in your stores, resturants and bars free parking anywhere, you get the Poorly-focused-adv-salute-in-a-dirty-mirror:

Yup, you douchebags who run H.B. don't even deserve a good picture! Kept going to Newport Beach, where there's free parking all over.It is a bit yuppified, however! The kid's jungle gym in the park even has a mini rock climbing wall, I guess to train them in the latest yuppie fitness fad:

We all know beer and pizza go together, but Newport has taken it to the next level:

Now I just got some coconut water, however a pepperoni and some Maker's Mark was sounding mighty tasty!

I know I'm old. Apple vodka didn't even exist when I lost my virginity!